Lamont Clan

Father Peter
Noel Lamont of that Ilk
http://www.clsna.us/chief.html

It is an old and accredited
tradition in the Highlands, that the Lamonds or Lamonts were the most ancient proprietors of Cowal, and that the Stewarts, Maclauchlans, and Campbells obtained possession of their property in that
district by marriage with daughters of the family. At an early period a very small part only of Cowal was included in the sheriffdon of Upper Argyle, the remainder being comprehended in that of
Perth. It may, therefore, be presumed that, on the conquest of Argyle by Alexander II, the lord of Lower Cowal had submitted to the king, and obtained a crown charter. But, in little more than half a
century after that event, we find the High Steward in possession of Lower Cowal, and the Maclauchlans in possession of Strathlachlan. It appears indeed, that, in 1242, Alexander the High Steward of
Scotland, married Jean, the daughter of James, son of Angus MacRory, who is styled Lord of Bute; and, from the manuscript of 1450, we learn that, about the same period, Gilchirst Maclauchlan married
the daughter of Lachlan MacRory; from which it is probable that this Roderic or Rory was the third individual who obtained a crown charter for Lower Cowal, and that by these intermarriages the
property passed from his family into the hands of the Stewarts and the Machlauchlans. The coincidence of these facts, with the tradition above mentioned, would seem also to indicate that Angus
MacRory was the ancestor of the Lamonds.

After the marriage of the Steward with the heiress of Lamond, the next of that race of whom any mention is made is Duncan MacFercher and "Laumanus", son of Malcolm, and grandson of the same Duncan,
who appear to have granted to the monks of Paisley a charter of the lands of Kilmore, near Lochgilp, and also the lands "which they and their predecessors held at Kilmum" . In the same year,
"Laumanus", the son of Malcolm, also granted a charter of the lands of Kilfinnan, which, in 1295, is confirmed by Malcolm, the son and heir of the late "Laumanus" (domini quondam Laumanis). But in an
instrument, or deed, dates in 1466, between the monastry of Paisley and John Lamond of Lamond, regarding the lands of Kilfinan, it is expressly stated, that these lands had belonged to the ancestors
of John Lamond; and hence, it is evident, that the "Laumanus", mentioned in the previous deed, must have been one of the number, if not indeed the chief and founder of the family. "From Laumanus",
says Mr Skene, "the clan appear to have taken the name of Maclaman or Lamond, having previously to this time borne the name of Macerachar, and Clan Mhic Earachar".

The connection of this clan with that of Dugall Craignish, is indicated by the same circumstances which point out the connection of other branches of the tribe; for whilst the Craignish family
preserved its power it was followed by a great portion of the Clan Mhic Earachar, although it possessed no feudal right to their services. "There is one peculiarity connected with the Lamonds", says
Mr Skene, "that although by no means a powerful clan, their genealogy can be proved by charters, at a time when most other Highland families are obliged to have recourse to tradition, and the
genealogies of their ancient sennachies; but their antiquity could not protect the Lammonds from the encroachments of the Campbells. by whom they were soon reduced to as small a portion of their
original possessions in Lower Cowal, as the other Argyleshire clans had been of theirs". The Lamonds were a clan of the same description as the Maclauchlans, and, like the latter, they have, not
withstanding "the encroachments of the Campbells", still retained a portion of their ancient possessions. The chief of this family is Lamond of Lamond.

According to Nisbet, the clan Lamond were originally from Ireland, but whether they sprung from the Dalriadic colony, or from a still earlier race in Cowal, it is certain that they possessed, at a
very early period, the superiority of the district. Their name continued to be the prevailing one till the middle of the 17th century. InJune 1646, certain chiefs of the clan Campbell in the vicinity
of Dunoon castle, determined upon obtaining the ascendency of the period, to wage a war of extermination against the Lamonds. The massacre of the latter by the Campbells, that year, formed one of the
charges against the Marquis of Argyll in 1661, although he does not seem to have been any party to it.

An interesting tradition is recorded of one of the lairds of Lammond, who had unfortunately killed, in a sudden quarrel, the son of MacGregor of Glenstrae, taking refuge in the house of the latter,
and claiming his protection, which was readily granted, he being ignorant that he was the slayer of his son. On being informed, MacGregor escorted him in safety to his own people. When the MacGregors
were proscribed, and the aged chief of Glenstrae had become a wanderer, Lamond hastened to protect him and his family, and received them into his house.

AMONG the clans of the West Highlands which appear to be able to claim actual descent from early Celtic stock, Clan Lamont may be
considered one of the most assured. There is some reason to believe that the Lamont chiefs were originally a branch of the great house of O’Neil, kings of Ulster in early times. The hand surmounting
the old Lamont crest is pointed to as being undoubtedly the "Red hand of Ulster," and the Lamont motto, " Nec parcas nec spernas," is also pointed to as indicating the close relationship, while the
documents of early times which refer to the Chief as "The Great Lamont of Cowal" seemed to indicate a relationship with the Ulster title of "The Great O’Neil." The name Lamont appears to date from
the middle of the thirteenth century. One feudal charter of that time was granted by "Laumanus filius Malcolmi, nepos Duncani, filius Fearchar," conveying lands at Kilmun and Locbgilp to Paisley
Abbey, while another, dated 1295, is by " Malcolmus filius er haeres domini quondam Laumani." It is from this Lauman that the later chiefs take their name, and are styled Mac-Laomainn. Before the
date of these charters the chiefs are said to have been named Mac’erachar from their early ancestor, Farquhar, grandfather of Lauman, who lived about the year 1200. In any case, from a very early
time the Lamonts appear to have possessed the greaser part of Cowal, and the ruins of several of their strongholds still remain to attest their greatness.

The beginning of their eclipse may be dated from the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1334, when
Edward Baliol had overrun Scotland, basely acknowledging Edward III. of England as his suzerain, and when, as a consequence of the battles of Dupplin and Halidon Hill, it had looked as if all the
labours and victories of Robert the Bruce had been in vain, Bruce’s young grandson, Robert the High Steward, suddenly turned the tables. From hiding in Bute he escaped to Dunbarton, raised his
vassals of Renfrewshire, and stormed the stronghold of Dunoon. This was the signal for the Scots to rise, and before long Scotland was once more free. Among those who helped the High Steward on
this occasion, was Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, and when Robert the Steward became King Robert II. in 1371, he made Campbell hereditary keeper of his royal castle of Dunoon. From that day the
Campbells used every means to increase their footing in Cowal, and before long a feud broke out between them and Clan Lamont, the ancient possessors of the district, which was to end, nearly three
centuries later, in one of the most tragic incidents of Highland history.

One of the first episodes of the feud took place in the year 1400. The King’s court was then at
Rothesay Castle, and from it, one day, three young lords crossed over to hunt at Ardyne in the Lamont country. As a sequel to their excursion, they tried to carry off some of the young women of
Cowal; at which four sons of the Lamont Chief came to the rescue and slew the ravishers. A garbled account of the incident was carried to the court, and as a result, the King confiscated the Lamont
territory in Strath Echaig, and conferred it on the Campbell chief.

Forty years later another incident occurred in which the generosity of the chief of Clan Lamont was
turned to account by his enemies. Celestine, son of Sir Duncan Campbell the Black Knight of Lochow, had died while being educated in the Lowlands. It was winter, and by reason of the deep snows,
Campbell professed to find it impossible to convey the body of his son through the mountain passes to Loch Awe. He accordingly asked permission from the Lamont chief to bury his son in the little
Lamont kirk at Kilmun on the Holy Loch. Permission was granted in terms thus translated from the Gaelic: "I the Great Lamont of all Cowal do give unto-thee, Black Knight of Lochow, the grave of flags
wherein to bury thy son in thy distress." Soon afterwards the Campbell chief endowed the burial-place of his son as a collegiate church, and from that day to this Kilmun has remained the burial-place
of the Argylls. In 1472 Colin, Earl of Argyll, obtained a charter of further lands about Dunoon Castle, including the West Bay and Innellan, and the stronghold of Dunoon appears forthwith to have
become a chief seat of the Argylls.

Still the Lamonts appear to have been willing to act the friendly part to the Campbells. In 1544, when
Henry VIII. was seeking to annex Scotland by forcibly obtaining possession of the infant Queen Mary, and when, to support the enterprise, the Earl of Lennox sailed with an English fleet up the Firth
of Clyde, the Lamonts mustered to help the Campbells in defending the stronghold of Dunoon. On that occasion Lennox landed under cover of the fire from his ships, forced the Lamonts and Campbells to
retreat with much slaughter, burnt Dunoon, and plundered its church.

A pleasant contrast to that episode was the visit of Queen Mary herself nineteen years later. The
Countess of Argyll was the Queen’s favourite half-sister, and it is narrated how Mary, then twenty-one years of age, on July 26th rode from Inveraray and slept at Strone, a Lamont seat; how, next
morning, she came to Dunoon, where she spent two days in hunting, and signed several charters; and how on the 19th she rode to Toward Castle, where she dined with the chief of Clan Lamont, Sir John
Lamont of Inveryne, before ferrying across to Southannan at Fairlie, on the Ayrshire coast. On that occasion the Queen may have been entertained with music from the famous ancient Celtic harp, which
was a treasured possession of the Lamonts for several centuries. About the year 1640 this harp passed by marriage into possession of the Robertsons of Lude, and it is described and illustrated in
Gunn’s elaborate work on the music of the Highlands.

It was a few years after this that an event occurred which throws a vivid light upon the chivalric
character of these old Highland chiefs. The incident took place either in 1602 or 1633. The tradition runs that the son of a Lamont chief had gone hunting on the shores of Loch Awe with the only son
of MacGregor of Glenstrae. At nightfall the two young men had made their camp in a cave, when a quarrel arose between them, and in the sudden strife Lamont drew his dirk, and MacGregor fell mortally
wounded. Pursued by MacGregor’s retainers, the aggressor fled, and, losing all idea of his way in the dark, and at last espying a light, applied for shelter at MacGregor’s own house of Glenstrae. The
old chief was stricken with grief when he heard the tale, and guessed it was his own son who had been slain. But the Highland laws of hospitality were inexorable. "Here, this night," he said, "you
shall be safe "; and when the clansmen arrived, demanding vengeance, he protected young Lamont from their fury. Then, while it was still dark, he conducted the young man across the hills to Dunderave
on Loch Fyne, and procured him a boat and oars. "Flee," he said, "for your life; in your own country we shall pursue you. Save yourself if you can!"

Years afterwards an old man, hunted and desperate, came to Toward Castle gate and besought shelter. It
was MacGregor of Glenstrae, stripped of his lands by the rapacious Campbells, and fleeing for his life. Lamont had not forgotten him, and he took him in, gave him a home for years, and when he died,
buried him with all the honour due to his rank in the little graveyard about the chapel of St. Mary on the farm of Toward-an-Uilt, where his resting place was long pointed out.

As is well known, the Campbells had been engaged for over a century in making themselves masters of the
ancient lands of Clan Gregor, and it may be that this act of hospitality to the old MacGregor chief formed the last drop in the cup of the ancient feud which brought destruction upon Clan
Lamont.

The story of the final act of the feud was told lately by Mr. Henry Lamond, a member of the clan, in
the pages of the Clan Lamont Journal for 1913. The original account is to be found in the charge of high treason and oppression brought against the Marquess of Argyll in 1661, included in
Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials, vol. v. The author of this account rightly says that, while the massacre of the MacDonalds of Glencoe in 1692 still sends a shudder through the
veins of the reader of history, not less horror would attend a perusal of the Dunoon massacre, were it as generally known. As a matter of fact, the massacre of the Lamonts by the Campbells at Dunoon
was a much more dreadful affair than even the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells at Glencoe. The incident took place after the defeat of the forces of King Charles I. under the Marquess of
Montrose at Philiphaugh in 1646. By that victory the Marquess of Argyll, chief of the Campbells and of the Covenanting party in Scotland, became absolute ruler of the kingdom, and he forthwith
proceeded to use his powers for the destruction of three of the clans from whom his family had been engaged in seizing lands and power for several centuries bygone. First the MacDonalds were stormed
and massacred in their stronghold of Dunavertie at the south end of Kintyre; then the MacDougals saw their last castles of Gylen and Duqolly overthrown and given to the flames; and, last of the
three, the Lamonts were attacked and well nigh exterminated in their own region of Cowal.

Sir James Lamont of Inveryne, knight, then chief of the Clan, had been educated at Glasgow University,
had represented Argyllshire in the Scottish Parliament, and had been King Charles’ commissioner and a friend of the Marquess of Montrose. In fairness to Argyll it should be mentioned that the
commission to Sir James, given under the hand of King Charles I. in March, 1643, authorised and ordered him to prosecute a war and levy forces in His Majesty’s name against those in rebellion, and
particularly against the Marquess of Argyll, and that, in accordance with this commission, Sir James had gathered together his friends and followers. But upon the king’s surrender to the Scottish
army at Newcastle, Lamont had laid down arms and retired peaceably to his own houses of Toward and Ascog. The indictment goes on to relate how, after the overthrow of Montrose at Philiphaugh, James
Campbell of Ardkinglass, Dugald Campbell of Inverawe, and other officers, under the order of the Marquess of Argyll, laid siege to these two houses. On the third of June, Lamont surrendered upon
conditions, signed by seven of the Campbell leaders, which granted indemnity to the Lamonts in person and estate, with power to pass freely where they pleased. But no sooner were the strongholds
yielded than the Campbells proceeded to plunder them utterly, and to waste the whole estates and possessions of the Lamonts, doing damage to the extent of £50,000 sterling, and in the course of their
operations murdering a number of innocent women, whose bodies they left for a prey to ravenous beasts and fowls. While the plundering was going on, Sir James and his friends and clansmen were kept
guarded in the house and yards of Toward, with their hands cruelly bound behind their backs in the greatest misery. The Campbells next burned Ascog and Toward to the ground, threw their prisoners
into boats, and conveyed them to Dunoon. There they hanged thirty-six persons, most of them gentlemen of the name of Lamont, upon a growing ash tree behind the churchyard. The rest, to the number of
over two hundred and fifty, they stabbed with dirks and skeans at the ladder foot, and cast, many being still living, spurning and wrestling, into pits, where they were buried alive. So much did the
horror of the circumstances impress people’s minds, that it was said the tree withered and its roots ran blood, till the Campbells at last found it necessary to "Houck out the root, covering the hole
with earth, which was full of the said matter like blood."

Sir James Lamont himself was spared, and, being carried to Inveraray, was forced to sign a paper
declaring that he himself had been in the wrong; and he was afterwards kept a close prisoner at Dunstaffnage, where, under a threat of being kept in the dungeon "until the marrow should rot within
his bones," he was forced to sign a deed yielding up his estates. He was also made to sign a bond for 4,400 merks as payment for his four years’ entertainment in the castle. He was afterwards
imprisoned at Inisconnell in Loch Awe, and in Stirling Castle, and was only liberated when Cromwell overran the country in 1651.

This act of massacre and oppression against Clan Lamont formed the chief item upon which Argyll was
charged after the Restoration, and if it were for nothing but this alone, he may be held to have richly deserved his fate when his head fell under the knife of the "Maiden."

The massacre, however, had meanwhile exercised a far-reaching effect upon the fortunes of the clan,
many of whom, harried and driven from their lands, had been forced to assume other names, so that to the present hour there are many Browns and Blacks and Whites both in Cowal and elsewhere, who are
of pure Lamont descent.

The incident of the massacre, terrible as it was, had been all but forgotten by everyone except the
Lamonts themselves and a few people who took an interest in the history of Cowal, till, a few years ago, the Clan Society was formed, and set about erecting a monument on the spot where so many of
the clansmen had suffered a violent death.

Sir James Lamont was reinstated in his property in 1663, but Toward Castle

was never rebuilt by the Lamont chiefs, and stands a sad ruin yet among its woods. The modern
Toward Castle was built by Kirkman Findlay, the famous East India merchant of Napoleonic times. The later seat of the Lamont chiefs was Ardlamont House, on the promontory between Tignabruaich and
Loch Fyne, but following a notorious murder which took place there during the occupancy of some English tenants, about the beginning of the twentieth century, the estate was sold, and the chief of
the clan now resides principally at Westward Ho in Devonshire.

The present Chief, twenty-first of the name, is Major John Henry Lamont of Lamont, and he has a record
behind him of hard fighting in the great Afghan War, in which he took part as a lieutenant in command of a troop of cavalry in the famous march under Lord Roberts to the relief of Kandahar and the
crushing defeat of Ayoub Khan. Major Lamont is a famous polo player, steeplechase rider, and follower of hounds, and the only regret of his clansmen is that he no longer lives upon the acres of his
ancestors. He is unmarried, and his apparent successor in the chiefship is Edward Lewis Lamont, Petersham, N.S.W., Australia, a great-grandson of the eighteenth chief. He is the eldest son of the
late Edward Buller Lamont of Monidrain, Argyllshire, and grandson of the late Captain Norman Lamont, M.P. for Wells, Somersetshire, who was second son of the eighteenth chief. He is unmarried, but
has numerous nephews to support the chiefship of the clan.

The only landed man of the name now in Cowal is Sir Norman Lamont, Bart., of Knockdow. His father, the
first baronet, who died on 29th July, 1913, in his eighty-sixth year, was the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Lamont of Knockdow, whom he succeeded as laird in 1861. Sir James, who as a
young man held a commission in the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders, was a noted big-game hunter in Africa, and had a story of strange adventures in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. In his own yachts, the
Ginevra and the Diana, he made several expeditions to the Polar seas which, though their primary object was sport, resulted in some valuable contributions to geographical and other
knowledge. He published accounts of his adventures in two racy books, Seasons with the Sea-Horses and Yachting in the Arctic Seas, and in 1912-3, over the signature "84," he
published a series of ten articles of sporting reminiscences which attracted a great deal of attention. He was also for a time member of Parliament for Bute, for which also his elder surviving son,
the present baronet, was member from 1905 till 1910.

Among many other members of the clan who have distinguished themselves may be cited David Lamont, D.D.,
who was chaplain to the Prince of Wales in 1785, Moderator to the General Assembly in 1782, and appointed chaplain in ordinary for Scotland in 1824; also Johann von Lamont, the astronomer and
magnetician of last century, who was Professor of Astronomy in the University of Munich, and executed the magnetic surveys of Bavaria, France, Spain, North Germany, and Denmark. The work of John
Lamont, the diarist of the seventeenth century, also remains of great value to the Scottish genealogist.

The latest evidence of the clan’s activities is the Clan Lamont Society, instituted a few years ago,
which is now a flourishing institution in the West of Scotland. Its inception in 1895 was largely due to Lieutenant-Colonel Lamont, V.D., a descendant of the MacPatrick branch of the clan. Colonel
Lamont is the author of a brochure on the Lamont tartan, which has attracted wide notice among students of these things, and is of the deepest interest to the clan.

The Clan Lamont is of great
antiquity and at one time held considerable lands in Argyllshire before the encroachment of the Campbells and other clans. The name is thought to derive from the Old Norse for "lawman" and according
to Highland tradition the Lamonts were founded by Ferchar who lived around 1200. They were the ancient proprietors of Council and the Stewarts, Maclachlans and Campbells obtained their possessions in
the district by marriage with the daughters of that family. The first record of the name in Scotland is of one Ladhmunn, son of Donald, son of Malcolm III who was killed by Moray men in 1116. Because
the Lamonts opposed Robert the Bruce, they suffered accordingly during his reign but John Lamont of that llk later held a charter from James III and was knighted in 1539. He had his lands united into
the Barony of Inveryne, his principal seat being Toward Castle where he entertained Mary Queen of Scots in 1563. During the disturbed period of the Civil War several of the Campbell chiefs ravaged
the Lamont country and in 1646 treachously massacred 200 Lamonts at Dunoon. (This massacre formed one of the charges against the Marquis of Argyle for which he was executed in 1661). Not
surprisingly, what remained of the clan scattered and the chiefship passed to a cadet branch which later emigrated to Australia where the present chief now lives. John the 9th Chief commanded the
Gordon Highlanders at Corunna in 1809. The Lamonts were connected by marriage to many of the titled families in Scotland.